To make a successful steamed bun or steamed stuffed bun, dough making (kneading) and fermentation are two very important steps. Gluten will be formed in the process of kneading dough, and the function of gluten is to wrap the carbon dioxide produced during yeast fermentation, so that the dough forms countless small pores, making it soft and bulky. Therefore, the amount of gluten determines whether the organization of steamed bread is delicate enough. With less gluten, the tissue is rough and the pores are large; With more gluten, the tissue is delicate and the pores are small. The same pumpkin steamed bread,

The first picture below: less gluten, big pores, and the second picture: more gluten, fine pores. We can compare the difference of internal organization between two steamed buns after tearing.

kneading technique: use wrist force to repeat two actions: pushing forward (figure 1 below) and folding the dough (figure 2 below). Generally, it takes about 15-2 minutes to knead the dough to a smooth state.

after each folding and pushing, turn the dough 9 degrees and repeat these two actions. (The following six pictures are continuous action diagrams)

Figure 1: Fold the dough in half, Figure 2: Push the dough forward, and Figure 3: Turn the dough 9 degrees.

Figure 4: Fold the dough in half, Figure 5: Push the dough forward, Figure 6: Turn the dough 9 degrees.

The following pictures show the process from mixing flour into a flocculent state to kneading until it is smooth.

Figure 1: Mix all the ingredients with chopsticks to form a floccule. (scrape the powder off the edge of the basin)

Figure 2: Flocculate the dough into a ball by hand (if the dough is too dry and there is a lot of dry powder in the basin, you can add water as appropriate at this time).

Figure 3: Fold all the noodles in the basin into a ball. (There is no extra dry powder in the basin)

Figure 4: After kneading the dough for 5 minutes. (Cover and let stand for 5 minutes)

Figure 5: The dough looks like after standing for 5 minutes and kneading for another minute. (Because the dough felt a little dry, I added a little water. )

Figure 6: The dough looks like after adding water and kneading for 3 minutes. Depending on the dough, I usually knead it for another 5-1 minutes. )

this process took 15 minutes, except for 5 minutes of proofing, the time for kneading dough was about 1 minutes. If the dough is dry or has a large amount, you can increase the number and time of standing. The dough relaxes during standing and forms gluten. Let it stand and then knead the noodles, which will make it easier to operate and less laborious to knead. When the dough is kneaded, it is not far from the smooth and full steamed bread.